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Nobody sleeps on Celebrity! Book elsewhere.

Nobody sleeps on Celebrity! Book elsewhere.

Old Jul 2nd, 2015, 06:21 PM
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Nobody sleeps on Celebrity! Book elsewhere.

Never again. We have one RCCL cruise booked for OCT2016 but we have decided that, based on our poor experience on Equinox, that will be our last cruise ever. Equinox has taught even our frequent cruiser kids that cruising is not for them. A simple service failure is easy to forgive. Stuff happens. But a strategic decision made by a high-level Celebrity manager in Miami is no accident. So putting a &@#!&$ late-night band in the atrium is a loud and clear message to the market that "Nobody sleeps on Celebrity." That should be their new marketing tagline. The advertisements could say, "Are you someone who goes on vacation to get rejuvinated? Nobody sleeps on Celebrity." Or the ad could say, "Are you a family with children? Nobody sleeps on Celebrity." One more option, "Do you like to explore new places while full of energy and focus? Nobody sleeps on Celebrity." That tagline is versatile, although too long, so most people will abbreviate it to, simply, #CelebritySucks. Or maybe #WhatIdiotPutsALateNightBandInTheAtrium. We have cruised a lot, on several cruise lines. So we always take special care to work with our travel agent to choose a quiet cabin. We watch out for noisy venues above or below. We thought our Equinox cabin was perfectly located. But neither we nor our travel agent anticipated that a high-level Celebrity manager in Miami would approve a $&*@#$ late-night band in the atrium where it would efficiently prevent sleep for every cabin on every level. A string quartet until 9pm? Sure. But a &*#$@# late-night band until 11pm or even techno DJ until midnight? That is definitely a message that Celebrity doesn't want families onboard. Celebrity doesn't want busy, hard-working people who now want to relax. Celebrity doesn't want adventurous people who want to explore the ports well-rested.

The late-night music and thumping bass was actually louder inside our 6th floor cabin that you'd have the volume turned up in there if you actually wanted to listen, let alone if you wanted to sleep. Not just a faint distant band, but right outside our door, until midnight almost every night. At the Guest Services desk in the atrium the passengers would lean over and put their mouths next to the crew's ears to shout what they needed help with. I asked one crew, while I was there exchanging some leftover Turkish money, "Doesn't the loud band make it hard to do business here?" She said, "What???" No joke.

"Nobody sleeps on Celebrity." Message received. As a long-time customer of Celebrity I promise to help them spread their new tagline everywhere on social media, on cruise forums, and with everyone who asks me for travel advice. I only wish someone had told me about the &#@$*& late-night band in the atrium before I booked this trip. It took Equinox to help me understand that I am not Celebrity's target market. Never again. "Nobody sleeps on Celebrity."

PS: During my cruise itself I submitted this to Captain's Club online (using my expensive onboard internet minutes) and got an automated email back from Celebrity saying they'd contact me. They never did (and still haven't yet). However, throughout the cruise I kept getting voice messages from the Captain's Club rep onboard inviting us to the social things, encouraging future cruise, etc. I was blown away that they are so disconnected as a company that a passenger currently onboard isn't immediately responded to so things don't stew and get worse. Other customer-focused companies have whole departments following Twitter and Facebook posts searching for complaints so they can nip problems in the bud. Apparently not Celebrity/RCCL, who didn't ever follow up. Book elsewhere, folks. Or plan to be a physical wreck after a week of no sleep.
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Old Jul 3rd, 2015, 06:49 AM
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When was your sailing?
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Old Jul 3rd, 2015, 07:13 AM
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Hi Larry! Did you notice this is the first and only post by
this person? I have had 11 cruises on Celebrity and never encountered anything like this. However I have never been on the Equinox and maybe they are trying to appeal to a younger party crowd. If in fact this is the case I will stick to the smaller ships.
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Old Jul 3rd, 2015, 07:43 AM
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I have had four excellent cruises with Celebrity but we have always been on one of the higher decks. Even though we chose suites just behind the elevators and therefore near the atrium, we heard nothing once the door to our suite was closed.

I don't dispute the poster's experience because noise does travel up the atrium. I am a bit bothered that Celebrity didn't do anything to address it.
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Old Jul 3rd, 2015, 09:14 AM
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Hi T69!1 How are you. Do you have any cruises planned?

So here is my take on this post. Yes I did see that its the only post by this member who no doubt registered to vent his frustrations and to try to deter others from using Celebrity. We long time Fodorites have seen this so many times before and the posters never return. This person also posted this onYelp! BTW.

I went to cruise critic and scoured the latest passenger reviews which were mostly very positive and of those that were not there was not mention of excessive atrium noise. I even googled atrium band noise for this ship and all I found was one comment by a person with a cabin on deck 8 by the elevators which said they were amazed that the music they heard outside their door virtually disappeared when they went inside and closed the door. Then I checked the Celebrity board on CC and saw nothing about atrium noise. Zero.

I have been on the Equinox and it was the best cruise we have ever been on. The CD said she gets the best reviews for any X ship and based on their current 91 % approval rating I imagine she is still up there. In fact she is 2nd by 1/10 of a point in the large ship category trailing two Disney ships and one from HAL.

The OP is entitled to his opinion but based on what I can find and the ranting tone of this post I have to agree with the 91% and all those who rank the Equinox at virtually the top of its category.

JM2C.

Larry. .
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Old Jul 3rd, 2015, 09:50 AM
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Hi Larry - That is my feeling too. I also checked cruise critic and couldn't find any negatives. I found that Celebrity has been one of the best for customer service. My husband and I had an Alaskan cruise booked in Sept 2001. Our cruise was several days after 911. We checked and it was scheduled to sail OK. As you know we live in Victoria and there is a bus that leaves here and during cruise season goes directly to the cruise terminal in Vancouver. We were on that and the driver was directed to take the passengers to the local Westin hotel. There were two Celebrity ships in port scheduled for that day. As it turns out - the problem was getting flights for departing passengers. We spent the day at the hotel and were fed lunch and dinner.
They didn't know if we would be sailing or not. They eventually took us to the ship where a Celebrity employee came on the bus (with appetizers and beverages) and told us we wouldn't be sailing. He said we would be assigned a cabin and would have our luggage delivered and to use the ship as a hotel until further notice. We spent four days in port having a wonderful time will all the full service. We had an envelope delivered to the cabin that said we would get a full refund plus a one week cruise on any Celebrity ship free of charge. They actually then sailed to Seattle where it was easier to get flights for the stranded passengers. So, as far as I am concerned, Celebrity gets five stars for customer service. By the way, the cabin we were assigned was a deluxe suite!!

Since my husband passed away I haven't done any cruising but as I was telling Eschew my brother and wife do a couple of cruises a year and want me to join them which I think I will do. (I book the lowest category and join them in their suite for cocktail hour!)
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Old Jul 3rd, 2015, 09:58 AM
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Absolutely! Do join them and have some fun. Eschew is a great guy and I don't see many posts from him lately so he must be busy.

If you try NCL some of their ships have singles cabins so maybe that can work out for all of you. We did our 1st NCL cruise last May on the Getaway and it was pretty good, enough that we will try them again someday. We met a gal, a Canuck actually who was traveling solo, had a single cabin and seemed to be enjoying herself. They also have lounges for singles too.

What they did for you was very impressive, especially considering the circumstances at that time. I too am a fan of Celebrity as they have treated us very well on our two cruises with them.

Our next cruise is an 11 day out of Singapore next feb. on the sapphire Princess. This will be the 1st time we have been on the same ship for a second time as we cruised her in 2005, Alaska.

Cheers, Larry. .
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Old Jul 3rd, 2015, 01:32 PM
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Imagine my surprise seeing this nice conversation between Larry & T69 here ... They should create a lounge like chat room in the cruise forum here just for us old timers to catch up!

I have been in and out, more out than in, of my house for the past 2 months. I did check in on the forum here and there when I have a chance and even managed to squeeze in a few replies to questions on my other posts.

So here is an update of what I have been up to for the last six weeks.

A week in DC during the May long weekend seeing the million bikers parade was awesome. That trip was work related but I managed to stop in a few museums and dinners at some hot spots.

A week in West Virgina visiting my sis during their scorcher 90+ degree heat wave almost did me in.

Just finished a week at the Canadian Rockies, back home now and we have no travel plan until October.

Back to the OP's comments about the band playing in the atrium...

Our last cruise on the Celebrity was the Solstice in November 2014 (Australia and New Zealand). It did strike me as very odd that they have a band playing at the atrium till midnight, almost daily, but since I can't hear them in my cabin, I did not pay much attention to it.

With that said, I loved their library and you can hear the music in the library. So we just don't go to the library for the quiet time any more. Since we were in Aqua class, we had access to the "relaxation room" within the spa area at the front of the ship so we just went there instead.

Larry, you've been on the Solstice so you knew where the library was and how the band playing in the atrium can make it quite uncomfortable if you were trying to relax in the library. After I read the OP's post, I can see that if your cabin is midship and close to the atrium, it is very possible that you can hear the music in your cabin. I am on the 12th floor and I can hear the music when I venture out to the elevator lobby.

I have to remember the atrium band now if and when I book the next Celebrity cruise to make sure the cabin is away from the atrium.

I know the OP is venting and I think the OP had a legitimate complaint.
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Old Jul 3rd, 2015, 02:04 PM
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We were actually on the Equinox but of course its a Solstice class ship.

DC is a fantastic place to visit. We were there a few yrs. ago in the fall, Oct. I think and the weather was great then.

Yep hotter weather get harder to handle. We have plans to be in Singapore in mid Feb. 5 days before our cruise and I am hoping it won't be too warm then but I imagine it will be no lower than the mid 80's if we are lucky. I just spoke to a gal who lived there for a wile and she seemed to feel it was warm all the time, worse in the summer.

For me I find that hyperbolic rants do more to muddle up what happened vs. a calmer and rational version of the situation but heck thats just me. Thats why I trued to find other similar complaints from the many passenger reviews on CC but there was nothing and having been on the Equinox and having seen their still top notch ratings its a tough one to believe 100%. Also my one experience with X CS turned out to be a positive one as I had complaints about our cruise on the Connie and they ended up giving me an OBC of $240.00 which we used for the Equinox.

Any way happy cruising to everyone!!
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Old Jul 6th, 2015, 01:18 PM
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Jacket,
What were your complaints on the Connie? It is my least favorite of any ships we have been on, but you have had so much experience, you have lot to compare with, so I am curious.
I did not like the food. It was beautifully presented, but a lot of dishes they attempted were not up to even my very basic standard at home. Except for sending back a fish dish, I let the rest go because others at our table raved about how good it was. My family says I am a great cook. I am starting to believe them.
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Old Jul 6th, 2015, 01:56 PM
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Sass thats funny. Believe you are a great cook!! . Actually I like to cook too and sometimes I find myself more critical of the food when we go out.

We had one huge issue on the Connie and it had to do with the Indian food we request for Sue and have always received on every cruise we have taken. On the Connie she was getting the same stuff every night. Even when we requested something different like just a vegetable on no chicken guess what, no vegetable and chicken. We bumped up the request to the Maitre'd and still it was the same! Our table mates noticed what was happening and we dismayed as well. Then the last night they served a chicken dish that was horrible. It was so full of mint it tasted like a mojito.

I did some some problems following up with this when we got back and at first got stone walled by the X guy I managed to contact. He offered zero! Finally he offered ONE dinner at a speciality restaurant and I said "how about two." He agree to that but as that did not sit well I called their CS again and this time spoke to a different person who asked me this guys name and she was aghast that he wanted to do nothing. I think she was his boss. anyway she offered us $240.00 OBC for a future cruise which was very generous so we used that the following yr. on the Equinox.

Did you like the food that night at the Tuscan grille?

Other than the Indian food problem which I think was from a chef being too stubborn we liked everything else though the concierge service is over rated.

Do you have any plans to cruise in the future?

Take care, Larry. .
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Old Jul 7th, 2015, 10:39 PM
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Food on the Solstice was average. We were Aqua class and dined exclusively in the specialty dining room (Blu) rather than the MDR.
We compared menus and find the MDR menu ordinary and the selection in Blu was much better.

With that said, we found the soups salty. We have to sent it back one time as it was worst than licking salt. Most sauces are over powering (salty again) and fish were over cooked.

We saw the chef came out and speak to passengers almost nightly and I am sure it is not exchanging pleasantry. We sat next to a couple on the last day that we knew the chef had chatted to them at least a couple of times. They basically told me what they think of the food which I can't repeat word for word.

It wasn't as good as I expected but it was very average, and for being a specialty restaurant that was supposed to feature "healthy" food, the amount of salt was unforgivable. When we left the soups untouched, the service staff were quite apologetic and offered alternatives. We learned to skip soup and order something else and ask for dressing and sauces on the side.

Larry, your wonderful tale of CS from X wasn't what I was expected. If you would have gotten the OBC on your first call, I would have agree it was good CS. When you have to call multiple times, negotiate from nothing to 1 free dinner and then 2 and still no happy and call again. That's pretty crappy.

Here is an example of what I would call exceptional CS. Years ago, a man showed up at Nordstrom with 4 tires and wanted a refund and he cannot produce a receipt. The clerk asked how much he paid and he throw a number out. The clerk processed the refund without hesitation based on his figure, no questions asked. The funny thing is, the clerk knew the store doesn't sell tires and never did. Now, that's exception CS.
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Old Jul 8th, 2015, 02:38 AM
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Eschew

Your comment about salty food is interesting--we've eaten in Blu on three cruises, on the 2014 Eclipse transatlantic from Ft. Lauderdale to Southampton I thought the food was particularly salty. Thought maybe it was just me as I wasn't very well at the time, lots of meds.

Our crossing this April was on Celebrity, Miami to Rome. We dined in Blu a few times but really enjoyed the new suites dining room. Service was a bit bumpy the first day or two but once they got their act together we had great service and good food (it was the dining room's opening voyage). It's divided into two rooms, maybe 20 tables in each room, lots of windows, quiet but not stuffy, usual talking to neighboring tables if you want.

We find Celebrity has the best buffet where of course there is Indian, Mexicsn, etc. food but hardly a fine dining experience. Our Sky suite booking included 2 specialty dinners, we went to Tuscan Grill and Murano, thought Murano particularly good (Dover sole). We went to Tuscan Grill a second time with a group of 8, think it was more fun that time, the waiters were great.
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Old Jul 8th, 2015, 03:34 AM
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I look at it this way. Its not how it starts but how if finishes. It was just my luck I think to get connected to this stingy guy but hopefully this is an exception. The gal I eventually spoke to said offering OBC for future cruises to make up for problems like what we had was done "all the time" so lets say it was one person vs. the norm.

We thought the food on the Equinox was very good, esp. the buffet luncheon.

I hope that clerks boss was ok with giving a refund for a product they do not carry. .
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Old Jul 8th, 2015, 05:07 AM
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Speaking of CS I can mention a few example but here is one. On the rather small Tahitian Princess we had a f/w facing cabin. Terrible choice as we felt the motion very badly and my wife became quite ill for sea sickness. I asked for a new cabin but the ship was full. I thought we would have to get off really. One day she was sleeping amidships near the pursers area and we then went to the Horizon cafe. Then we heard our names paged. Good God what now. An officer who knew she was ill and saw her sleeping earlier came to know of a mini suite amid ships that had just become vacant. They offered it to us while mentioning they hoped it would help her. W/I 15 mins. they sent men to our cabin to move us and just like that our cruise was saved.

The cabin became available as someone in it had to be evacuated from the ship for a medical emergency. I am so sorry for them.

I did write Princess with names to get their props for this good deed and of course a generous tip was made too.
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Old Jul 8th, 2015, 06:56 AM
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Sassafrass
I found another cruise for our friend Tom (cary999) 50 nights Ft Lauderdale return. Too bad he doesn't like our website!! I'd love to take it.
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Old Jul 8th, 2015, 01:19 PM
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Larry, re the store clerk example: that's how the management team train their CS staff so the clerk will not be in trouble at all. They look at it as a cheap way to ensure there is no uncalled for negative feedback, justified or not, as the listener to the negative feedback will only hear one side of the story. Just imagine how this conversation could go: that d*mn store, won;t give me my money back. The story teller probably would neglect to mention the tires were not bought there or how long he had it; and the listener will never ask.

I like your example on the Tahitian Princess as it is more genuine and from staff who cared. I had a similar story on the inaugural Ruby Princess cruise. DW wasn't feeling so good as the sea was rough. We asked for some raw ginger to help her settle down her tummy. After disappearing for about 5 minutes, the head waiter returned with a ramekin of fresh grounded ginger. By the end of the dinner, DW was feeling much better and the ramekin was empty. Without asking, he brought in a second ramekin and asked if we want one delivered to the cabin.

For the next few days, he stopped by the table and checked and made sure she was okay and keep delivering the ginger to the table and the cabin. It does not cost much but the effort and the care was there. That was either our second or third cruise with Princess at the time and since that time, DW was sold on Princess and took a lot of convincing from me to get her on other cruise lines, and we have been back on the Ruby Princess 2 more times since.

CS is not not about monetary; it's about the effort and the attitude that they care, and hopefully it is genuine. As teh saying goes, you got it made if you can fake sincerity.

When people do things when they don't have to, and when they do things above and beyond, that's true good customer service.
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Old Jul 8th, 2015, 01:47 PM
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Thats very nice of them and this is what I have come to expect from Princess. I am glad that gal did not get reamed out if all she did was follow policy.

One Sat. night 4 of us went to a local ital. restaurant, Maggianos. It s a national chain and we like it. It was a busy night as usual for this place and we were done with everything on like 70 mins. after sitting. So then the manager tells us there was a screw up with our order and one of our entrees was taken by another waiter by mistake so they had to remake all of ours so guess what the total bill even the drinks were comped! Well there is no way we would have know or even suspected there was a problem as we were done in a timely manner so for us thats great CS. Yep, you are correct. Its about being pound wise and penny foolish so to speak.
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Old Jul 9th, 2015, 09:33 PM
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Hmmm. I was a little underwhelmed with Celebrity, but we definitely slept. I would be more inclined to complain that they roll up the decks at night than that it is "loud party central".

Our customer service experience was fine, too. Any issues we had were really with ship layout and programming, and the food, while mostly fine, not as special as we had expected.
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Old Jul 30th, 2015, 07:07 AM
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Interesting thread! We're Celebrity fans, having cruised with the company eleven times, with numbers twelve and thirteen booked later this year, a B2B on the Equinox. We've sailed on the Millennium, Infinity, Constellation, Solstice, and Equinox. I read the OP's message with a furrowed brow because Celebrity is usually characterized as a "not much happens after 9:00pm" venue, rather than a "nobody sleeps on Celebrity" venue. In the past, we've had cabins near the elevators and could hear music in the central atrium in the hallways throughout the ship, but have never heard it at all inside our cabin when the door was closed. Celebrity isn't perfect (agree that their soups ARE usually way to salty), and their CS isn't always up to Nordstrom standards, but it works for us. Hope to see you aboard!
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